What is it about?
The present article examines the trend in growth of workforce and the change in its structure in India during the last three decades using census data. The analysis indicates that there was a fast decelerating rate of growth in overall workforce, particularly females, between 2001 and 2011. But the work participation rate did not decline, if not increased, as the rate of growth in workforce was not less than that in population. Secondly, incremental workforce, especially the male, reduced to marginal workers category, whereas the high concentration of female in the category of marginal workers slightly reduced. Occupational distribution of workforce shows that cultivators were declining. Such a decline in agriculture was replaced by increasing agricultural labour. The study further shows that growth of workforce in non-agriculture was higher than that in agriculture. Growth of female workers engaged in non-agriculture was higher than their male counterparts.
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Why is it important?
In the context of high economic growth period during the last two decades, concerns have rose over the growth of employment. The present paper examines the trend in growth of workforce and the change in its structure in India during the last three decades using census data. It is observed that although there was a fast decelerating rate of growth in overall workforce, particularly females, between 2001 and 2011, the work participation rate of females did not decline, if not increased. The rate of growth in workforce was not less than that in population. So the decelerate rate of growth workforce is due to deceleration in growth rate of population. Incremental workforce, especially the male, is reduced to marginal workers category. Occupational distribution of workforce shows that cultivators were declining. Such a decline in agriculture was replaced by increasing agricultural labour. Growth of female workers engaged in non-agriculture was higher than their male counterparts.
Perspectives
Growth of employment is important but in the decelerating population growth rate one cannot expect high growth employment along with high rate of growth in GDP. Now what is important is the quality and productivity of employment. Structural change in respect of employment shares moving towards non-agriculture important but its concentration in informal sector is a cause of concern. The present publication is discussing these issues.
Dr Venkatanarayana Motkuri
S.R.Sankaran Chair, National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Growth and Structure of Workforce in India, The Indian Economic Journal, March 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0019466216652753.
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